


Ori and the ghosts

by TwurtleEggy



Series: Ori, but a little to the left [2]
Category: Ori and the Blind Forest
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dreams, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Why are so many of their names three letters long
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23568694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwurtleEggy/pseuds/TwurtleEggy
Summary: Power does not come alone.
Relationships: Fil & Tatsu (Ori and the Blind Forest)
Series: Ori, but a little to the left [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1709002
Kudos: 34





	1. There are no good puns for "Leru"

**Author's Note:**

> Inside of a resting mind introductions are made, and grown spirits act a third their age.

When Leru woke up, the first thing she noticed was the sky above her, which was rather strange, seeing as how she remembered being underground before she went to sleep.

Sitting up and looking around, her attention was quickly drawn to three forms standing over her. It took a moment but she quickly recognized what they were, and even recognized the identities of two of them.

"Fil! Ano!" Her fellow guardians grinned wide at her as she leaped at them, enveloping them both in a large hug. She had missed them so much! But-

"Wait, Ano." She began. "I-I thought you were dead! Where have you been, why didn't you come back, where _are_ we?" She continued to rattle off questions as fast as she could, but she was soon silenced by the third, unknown spirit guardian popping up in front of her.

"Hi! I'm Ori!" he said. "And, um, I... ah..."

"We're dead," Fil blurted out. "Specifically, me, you, and Ano are dead. Ori's still alive, he's just asleep." 

Everything seemed to go still. Leru looked at Fil with a blank expression on her face. "We're... dead?"

"Yes," she said. "In fact, almost everyone is dead. Ori is the only living spirit guardian." A look of shock fell onto Leru's face. She remembered Kuro's wrath, but, but... there was no way she was telling the truth. They couldn't possibly _all_ be dead. There-there must have been survivors. Yes, yes yes yes, there must have been survivors, they just hadn't found them yet, yes that _must_ be it, it _has_ to be it, they can't-

"Leru!" The sudden shout startled her out of her thoughts and back into the present moment. The three other spirit guardians were looking at her with clear concern written on their faces. "I know it's hard to believe, but _please_ you have to believe me." Fil's expression turned to one that resembled pleading. "You know I wouldn't tell you everyone but Ori was dead if I wasn't sure of it."

And-that was true. In all the time Leru had known her, Fil had always been an optimist. She would never dare to say something so morbid unless it were simply factually true. And the more she thought about it... the more she began to realize that it must have been true. They never could have beaten Kuro, they weren't nearly strong enough. Despite being guardians, there were few of them that possessed any sort of combative skills, and when considering Kuro's sheer size, those spirits never had a chance of even doing much more than annoying the bird. They had never stood a chance. 

She took a few deep breaths, then stood up. "Alright then. If we're... dead, then how are we talking? And if Ori isn't dead, then why is he here? And where _is_ here?" She had dozens more questions to ask, but she knew that they had to be saved for a later time. Right now, this was what was important.

Fil motioned towards Ori, who stepped forward and began to speak. "Right now, we're in my unconscious mind. I absorbed you guys' light, which is why you're here." All right, then. That explained her questions at least, but it raised a particular question of it's own once she realized how many spirits were in the supposed mental plain.

"How are you alive?" An instant later, she internally cursed herself. That was rude, she should have known better. Luckily for her, the smaller guardian spirit just laughed bashfully, rubbing the back of his head.

"Yeah, they," he motioned towards Fil and Ano, "said you would probably ask that. The short answer is that my light is underdeveloped, so I can absorb other spirits' light with a lot less repercussions." Leru took a second to mull over that bit of information, and to consider what it meant. If his light was underdeveloped, then it explained why he would have survived Kuro's wrath for longer than the rest of them-he probably lived away from the Spirit Tree, so he wouldn't have gotten caught in the initial attack, and having a weak light would make him less noticeable.

"Okay..... I... guess I believe you," she said. "But I still have a few more questions, if that's okay."

Ori shrugged. "Sure, but Fil and Ano will probably have a lot more answers than me."

A playful grin crossed Leru's face, and a mischievous light entered her eyes. "Don't worry, I just want to hear about _all_ the stupid stuff those two have done so far." Both of the older spirits made odd spluttering noises, and Ano immediately made to lunge at her. She dodged his attempt, and beckoned for Ori to follow her. Finally looking around, she found that the landscape around them was unfamiliar. "Do you know anywhere we could go that they wouldn't be able to reach?" she shouted to Ori. He thought for a moment, before nodding and turning slightly, prompting for her to follow him. 

Eventually, Ori brought them up to a tree top that was too high and far from anything else to be reached without the double jump, giving the two some privacy from their elders.

"Soooo," Ori began. "Leru, right?" A quick nod in response, and the spirit grinned. "How old are you compared to those two?"

Leru let out a playful scoff. "Come now Ori, don't you know it's rude to ask someone their age?" The two stared each other down for several seconds, then broke out into giggles. "Fil's three years older then Ano, and Ano is four years older than me. How old are you?"

Ori's face scrunched up in thought. "Well, my mom said I was born in the Great Storm, so I want to say I'm.... twenty four? I might be twenty five though, I always forget the anniversary of my birthday." Leru looked at him in shock. He had been born in the Great Storm? Then that meant...

"You're the one the Light Ceremony was meant for!" she said all of a sudden. Ori gave a hesitant nod to her declaration. A curious look appeared on her face. "Why didn't you come back? Did you not see the ceremony somehow?"

"I did see the ceremony," he confirmed. "But my mom was scared of it. I don't know why, she just was. She brought me inside right as it started, and we just went to bed soon after. Honestly, I mostly forgot it had happened after a few days; it just seemed like some weird freak event."

A sour expression grew on her face. "A display of the Spirit Tree's full power isn't just _some weird freak event,_ Ori. It's important."

"I knooow," he said with a pout. "But I didn't theeen." His face seemed to shift slightly. "Can we get back on topic? How much older than me are you?"

"Well.... if you were born in the Great Storm, that would make me half a year older than you." She answered. 

"Which makes sense, considering how similar you two act."

Both Spirit Guardians whirled to the side, seeing Fil there. At their shocked expressions, she smirked. "Ano threw me over. Now, get over here you conniving punks!" Both Spirit Guardians shrieked with glee, running from their persistent elder as fast as they could. They couldn't run fast enough this time though, as Fil managed to catch up to them and grabbed one Spirit in each of her arms, despite their protests.

Returning to the ground, Fil turned them around and looked at the both of them with an upset glare. "While I can understand wanting to gossip about those older than you, running away like that was completely unacceptable. I'm very disappointed in the both of you, especially you Ori. You have a responsibility to save the forest, and you need to act like it." While Ori shrunk down on himself with an ashamed expression at her scolding, it only seemed to rile up Leru.

"Ano tried to grab us! We wouldn't have been able to tell each other stupid gossip with him constantly breathing down our necks!"

"I wouldn't have been 'constantly breathing down your necks'!" Ano shouted from a distance, though he was not yet visible. Fil rolled her eyes, told the two Spirit Guardians to stay put with a glare, then walked into the underbrush to find and guide Ano. A few seconds after she fully disappeared, Leru turned to Ori with a mischievous look.

"Wanna hear about the time Ano got trapped in a hollowed out log?"

Ori grinned back, a delighted light entering his eyes. "Do you even need to ask?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In Blind Forest, it always seemed to me that Ori acted way too tough to be a child, yet his idle animation and his slow walking animation seem like something someone younger would have, so I figured early to mid twenties suited him.


	2. Tatsu's lament

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sister's misery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter features some mentions of... less than pleasant things happening to someone's bones. I don't think it's the sort of thing that merits the Graphic Depictions of Violence warning, but if it does, please let me know so I can tone it down or change the warnings.  
> Also, this isn't necessarily a good guide to therapy.

As her eyes opened, Tatsu had expected to be greeted by the dark haze of the Misty Woods. She found it to be a pleasant surprise when she instead saw a dark night sky, glittering with stars. There was a cool, gentle breeze in the air, and for a moment she simply looked up to the sky, and let her thoughts wander. Where was she? How did she get here? Was her brother-

Oh. Right. Her brother. All of her happiness left her, as memories of her brother's torch invaded her mind. Though... she remembered a fall. A very, very long fall that had ended in a less than painless manner. She tried moving her legs-in the hope that the pain had maybe faded enough for her to walk at least for a little bit-and found that, shockingly, she was able to move them with no trouble or pain whatsoever, as if they hadn't even broken in the first place. 

As she tried to understand what was happening, two figures approached her, though she didn't notice them. Once they got close, one of them cleared their throat, and she was snapped out of her questioning thoughts. Sitting up, she found that, while she didn't recognize the one on the right, she did remember the one on her left. "Fil? What in the world is going on? Who is that?" She made to get up, but the sudden feeling of her weight on her legs made her freeze. They might not hurt any more, but...

"First of all, language. Second of all, I can explain everything, but I would like to get into the heavier stuff somewhere a little more comfortable. Would you like me to carry you?" Tatsu looked at her with a blink. "I heard about what happened with you falling," the older spirit said, with some hesitation. "I know your legs shouldn't hurt anymore, but if you would be more comfortable being carried, I can do that."

Tatsu took a moment to just look at her elder, before turning to look at the other spirit. They looked young, and their light seemed oddly dim. And yet, they looked at her with a trusting smile. Looking back to Fil, she sighed.

"I-Yes, I would like that, please."

* * *

It didn't take too long to reach the supposedly 'more comfortable' place that Fil mentioned. Despite this, she managed to explain as much to Tatsu in the short time as she could, including the young guardian's name-Ori, apparently-and just where they all were, how they got there, and the current situation in the whole of Nibel. 

Once they reached their destination, she found that Fil hadn't been exaggerating about the place being more comfortable. They had walked into a large, hollowed out tree stump, and she immediately noticed that the whole of the ground seemed to be covered in cushioning materials, such as leaves and straw. There were various lanterns hanging from the ceiling, and the large room just seemed to give off an air of comfort. Fil didn't immediately set her down, however. Instead, Ori was running around the room, gathering up spare bedding materials and setting them up in a slightly closed off part of the stump. Once he was done, Fil walked over to the pile and crouched so that Tatsu could easily slide off.

Once she was off, Ori seemingly said something to Fil, who nodded and let the small guardian run off. In truth, Tatsu wasn't really paying attention to whatever the two were doing, as she was busy in her thoughts. She wasn't entirely sure what Fil thought would be harder for her to deal with then _being dead,_ but her elder had never steered her wrong before, and she was admittedly a little bad at recognizing the things that were hurting her, so she just went with it. Besides, she was pretty comfy.

Fil came over and sat in front of her. :"So. There's two problems that I would like to try and address, and I would like to start with what I think will be the harder of the two. Is that okay?" Tatsu gave her a nod in response. "Very well. I would like to talk to you about your brother."

Oh no.

"Please, don't panic," Fil said. "You don't have to worry anymore, his torch has been reignited." Wait, that was _good_ news, how could this be the more difficult of the two? "I want to talk with you about what how you felt when you realized that his torch had faded." Oh. Well, that explained that. "Only if you're comfortable with it, of course."

"No," she began, "no, I-I should talk about this. It-It'll be good for me, right?" Fil gave a small nod and a quiet hum in response. "Alright then. Um, then, let-let's see, yeah?" A quiet look, as if Fil was asking her to start talking.

"Alright, um... I guess I just, I just remember looking down at the forest when I was climbing and-and I just, I saw all this fog just, _covering_ the whole of the Misty Woods, and, and I know that's pretty normal, I mean it's called the _Misty Woods_ for a _reason,_ yeah?" She let out a weak, blatantly fake chuckle. Fil moved a little closer to her, extending a hand out which she promptly tightly grabbed onto. "Anyway, um. I remember that the fog was a lot heavier than usual, and I was sort of just hanging there looking down for a few minutes, because I knew that there was something-something wrong with that, but I was having trouble remembering what, and then it just clicked, and then-and then, I just, I just," Fil moved closer once more, wrapping an arm around her and clutching her hand tighter.

"I-I remember falling, and I-don't know _when_ I started falling, I just remember-it was just, one second I was holding on to one of the cliff walls above the forest, and the next I just-wasn't. I was just falling, and I think I had lost my grip and-I-I don't, I don't know what happened, it was just, the ground kept coming faster and faster, and then I was just-I was just there, and-my, my legs, they were-"

"Alright," Fil said in the most soothing voice she could possibly muster. "Let's stop for a minute, yeah?" Tatsu took a shuddering breath, and nodded. God, she needed something to drink. Could she even drink anything? She turned to Fil and asked if there was anything to drink, and she smiled in response. "Yes, there is, but it's on the other side of the room. Is it okay if I go get it, or do you want me to call for someone to get it?"

"I-can you just carry me over? Please?" Fil gave her a warm smile and a nod, before picking her up. Slowly, so as to keep Tatsu as comfortable as she could, she walked over to a large wooden bowl filled with water. There were numerous, smaller wooden cups next to it, and Fil grabbed one before scooping up some of the water from the bowl and giving the cup to Tatsu. The younger spirit downed the water in one go, before giving it back. Fil refilled the cup, then slowly walked them back to the soft mound. They returned to the arrangement they had been in, though Tatsu now had the cup of water in her previously free hand.

"Alright," Fil said, "that was really all I wanted to know for the first thing. But please, Tatsu, I need you to promise me that you'll talk to someone if you ever start feeling bad again, okay?"

Tatsu took a few deep breaths before speaking. "Yeah, I promise I will. Thank you for listening to me Fil."

"Don't worry about it, please. Now, do you want to move on to the next topic yet, or do want some time to gather your thoughts?"

"I'd like to wait a little, if that's okay." Fil smiled and nodded, rubbing Tatsu's shoulders. While she did so, Tatsu took small sips from the cup while thinking about-well, anything, really. About what was happening in Nibel, about seeing Fil again, about what would happen once this whole thing was over. She thought a little about her brother, and tried to think on happier memories. About summer nights when they would hunt for the sweetest berries while everyone else was asleep. About the little picnics they would have towards the top of Sorrow Pass, and how Atsu would always steal the last bit of food from her _right before she ate it._

She missed him so much.

"Hey, Fil?" The older guardian looked up at her with a tilt of her head. "I think I'm ready now. What was the second thing you wanted to talk about?"

Fil bit her lip slightly. "Well, if you say you're ready... I would like to talk about trying to help get you back on your legs. Is there anything I can do to try and help you?" 

Tatsu thought for just a moment. "There's... not really much you can do. It's sort of just the kind of thing I need to do on my own." Fil nodded with an understanding smile. "Still, it would be nice for you to just sort of... be there. You know, as moral support. It would be really nice." Once again, Fil nodded. "Also, would it..... would it be okay if I, I told you a little about what happened?" Fil gave her a confused look, clearly not understanding what she was referring to. "After I-after I fell. Into the woods. You know, just to-to get my thoughts out of my head. If that's okay with-"

"Shhhhh, don't worry. Feel free to talk as much as you need to."

She kept quiet for a little, collecting her thoughts in preparation. "Alright. So. After I fell I couldn't-I couldn't walk. It hurt like hell to even try. But I have pretty good upper body strength-y'know, since I did so much climbing. So, since I was strong, I was able to drag myself along. It still felt awful, but-it was manageable, in small bursts, so long as I was careful. Anyways. Uh, I sort of just... dragged myself around for a while. Sometimes it would seem like the shape of the woods was changing right in front of my eyes, like-like it was alive. Which was pretty ironic now that I think about it, seeing as I was apparently dying." A weak chuckle escaped her lips, but Fil only gave her a concerned look.

"Alright, so, um, like I said. I sort of just dragged myself around for a while, just-hoping that something or someone would come and... I don't know. Save me, put me out of my misery, I just-I don't know. I just knew that I hurt worse than I ever had before. I dragged myself around the woods for so long, b-but, I-I never-never found, my br-broth-my brother's t-tor-" she couldn't stop shaking, no matter how much she tried. Fil twisted slightly, engulfing the younger guardian in a full hug.

"It's safe, okay? Your brother's torch, it's safe, alright? It's relit, it's better, okay?" Tatsu sniffed, then lightly nodded. Not everything was better, but things were certainly improving. "Do you want me to sing you a lullaby?"

She turned upwards with a confused look. "A... lullaby?" Fil simply nodded. "...Yeah. A lullaby would be nice."

"Alright then. Give me a second, okay? It's a little hard to remember the words to it." There was a small smirk on her face, but Tatsu didn't understand why until Fil began to actually sing the lullaby a moment later.

"La la laaaaa, la la laaaaa, la la laaaaa, laa laa laa laa, la la la laaaaaaa,"

Tatsu couldn't help but giggle a little. "Is-is that literally all the lyrics? Just 'La' over and over?" At Fil's nod, Tatsu's giggles worsened. "Oh my-what! That's just-you're such a dork!" 

As the dreaming world went on around them, the two spirits sat together, their troubles forgotten, even if just for a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know about how painful both of your legs practically shattering would be, but I tried to accurately convey how I imagine it would feel. Additionally, that lullaby was meant to mimic the singing in "Sepulcrum" from The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth+.


	3. The grounded suns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two old friends are found.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had some trouble figuring out the end of this, but I think it went relatively well. Hope you enjoy.

Eki stood atop a large tree, looking downward to the forest below her. She had a vague idea of where she was and how she got there, thanks to her childhood friend Sol's knowledge of the more mystical aspects of the world. Even still, not knowing those bits of information would not have changed the focus of her attention.

To her left sat two spirit guardians; the closer of the two was Sol, but it was the farther of the two that truly interested her. He was a spirit that had introduced himself as Ori, and asked to talk about something with the two of them. Despite his request, he had yet to say a word, and quite frankly, Eki was starting to get anxious. It felt _unnatural_ for her to go so long without moving. She wanted to be running around, exploring every nook and cranny of the place they were all in. 

Suddenly, Ori let out a loud breath that he had seemingly been holding. "Have either of you ever met someone named Naru?" Eki's eyes widened. This kid knew Naru? How?

"Yes, we know of one named Naru," she said. "Why? She's not in trouble is she?" Ori flinched hard, and Eki got the feeling that she _probably_ shouldn't have said that. A single sentence and the young spirit looked absolutely crushed. Clearly, he must be close with Naru, but how? Naru's father hadn't permitted her to play with her and Sol, what made this spirit different? 

Noticing her jealous thoughts, Eki swiftly crushed them. Jealousy would do her no good in finding her friend. As she mentally scolded herself, Ori seemed to prepare himself to speak once more.

"Naru is fine, but she was doing really bad for a while. I don't know if she was just really sick or... worse, but she's better now." He turned to them, a bit of happiness and curiosity returning to his face. "You guys knew her when she was younger, right? I saw some... memory thing of you two playing something with her." The two older spirits looked at each other, confused.

"What do you mean 'When she was younger?'" Her eyes widened. "Ori... how long have we been dead for?" The spirit bit his lip, focusing intensely.

"If I remember correctly, right now Naru is... fifty one? Maybe a little older, I'm not entirely sure." Eki's jaw dropped, shocked by what he said. When they had last seen Naru, their friend had been nineteen. After that, she had searched for her friend for what she remembered being about four years before giving up hope and presumably dying, which meant...

"Oh my god," she said, struggling to breathe. "I-I think I've been dead for almost _thirty years._ " Both of the other spirits looked to her, surprised. "Sol, how-how long were you dead?"

"I died during the Blindness, so I think I've only been dead for around a couple years at most." After a few seconds, some sort of realization seemed to dawn on her. "Wait, then doesn't that mean that I'm older than you now?" Eki stopped for a moment to think, her breath slowly returning to her. 

"I mean, I guess." The look on Sol's face caused a chill to run up her spine, as she realized her friend's likely intentions. "But you can't tease me about it! I was still born first!"

Sol merely scoffed. "Oh no, you've teased me plenty about you being, like, two months older than me. You are _not_ escaping now that I'm apparently two and a half _decades_ older than you." Eki whined, but Sol refused to spare her. "This is what you get! If you didn't want to risk something like this happening, then you shouldn't have constantly made fun of me!"

"How could I have predicted that I was going to die, you were going to die way later, then we would both end up being absorbed by another spirit! This is all so ridiculous, no one could have predicted it, least of all me!" Her complaints fell on deaf ears, as Sol only rolled her eyes, then ruffled her friend's head with an affectionate smile. "Jerk!"

"Um, excuse me?" Both of them turned to Ori, who was standing there looking thoroughly uncomfortable. In the midst of their arguing and revelations, they had completely forgotten he was even there. "I know you guys were friends with Naru, but how did you even meet her?" He was met by a quiet laugh from Sol.

"Oh, it was rather mundane, to be honest. We had just moved to Nibel, so we were trying to familiarize ourselves with the area when we just happened to bump into Naru. We ended up hanging out with her every once in a while, even though her dad didn't like us." She tilted her head lightly. "Say, how do _you_ know Naru? Are you a friend of her's?"

"Oh, no, I'm her adopted son."

This time, both of the elder spirit's jaws dropped. "You're her KID?!" they both shouted at the same time. They both panicked for a minute at the idea of their friend having adopted one of their kind. Eki dashed forward right in Ori's face and immediately began questioning him. "When, how, and why?"

Backing up slightly due to the lack of personal space. "Um, I was blown away from the Spirit Tree in a storm, and I sort of just... was born in front of Naru, and she just adopted me on the spot, probably because she's just really motherly."

Satisfied with his answer, Eki nodded and backed up a bit, before spontaneously grinning. "Hey, do you think you can tell us about what it's like living with Naru?"

A smile spread itself along Ori's face. "Oh yeah, but where to start..." He looked upward into the sky while humming a tune to himself. Eki actually recognized it, as she remembered Naru occasionally humming it herself. He must have learned it from her.

"Naru is really nice, and really caring," he began, a wistful smile on his face. "Even when I can deal with something dangerous on my own, she's always there to offer me some help."

"Do you guys ever cook anything?"

"Not really. There are plenty of things to eat in Swallow's Nest that don't need to be cooked but are still healthy, so we eat those. Besides, we don't actually have anything to cook with, so we couldn't if we wanted to." A downcast look crawled across Ori's face. "I wish I knew how to cook. Me and a few other spirits have been trying to make a cauldron so we can make some sort of a big feast at the end of the year, but the only one in the forest that knows how to cook anything is Naru. The problem there is that I want Naru to think that I'm more responsible now, but I can't really do that if I need to ask her for help with something so simple."

Eki hummed and looked to Sol. Both spirits wanted to help the smaller spirit grow closer with their friend, and this presented an excellent opportunity. "Say, Ori?" The spirit was brought from his thoughts, looking at the two and tilting his head. "Naru told us a few things about cooking every now and then, especially about some of her favorite recipes. How about _we_ teach you how to cook?"

Ori let out a happy gasp, his expression slowly getting more excited. "You would do that? Seriously?"

"Of course we would. Naru is our friend, and we want her to be happy just as much as you do. If teaching you to cook can help achieve that, then there's not much of a reason not to." Ori jumped in the air, letting a happy cry escape his mouth. He wrapped his arms around both spirits in the biggest hug he could, thanking them over and over again. "Geez, calm down. We can't really teach you much yet without a pot or a cauldron. Once you have all that set up, _then_ we'll start teaching you, yeah?" He began nodding rapidly, then shot down the tree before fading out, returning to the waking world.

Sol tapped her foot, looking around. "So, what do you want to do while we wait?"

"Maybe we should go see if there's anyone else in this weird place." It would be nice to have some new company, not that Sol was bothering her!

"Oh, already so quick to try and replace me? Tut tut, dear Eki; I expected better from you."

"Oh, shut up and get over here!" With her exceptionally better speed, Eki immediately dashed over to Sol, wrapping her up in a tight embrace that was quickly reciprocated. Both old friends simply remained there for a time, glad to be around each other again after so long. "...Hey Sol?"

"Yes, Eki?"

"I missed you."

"I missed you too. Now, come on, let's try and see if we can't find someone else around."


End file.
